First Principles, Inc. was founded in 1993 to provide historical instruction and information about the truth and current significance of the first principles of America, particularly as they provide the foundation for our institutions emphasizing virtue, honor, and patriotism, self-government, individual responsibility, and independent sovereignty, which begins with accountability of each...

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Before Donald Trump began his run for the Presidency, he was popular among liberals. While he bragged about his sexual conquests, liberals didn’t mind; after all, he was pro-choice on abortion and spoke the politically-correct language. He was the New York version of Bill Clinton: the left-leaning Alpha male who attracted women like dung attracts flies.

But when he became a Republican Presidential candidate and embraced the pro-life position on abortion, the Donald suddenly became an enemy of women. In his first debate performance, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly peppered him with questions about his remarks about women—his spat with Rosie O’Donnell, instigated by O’Donnell, made headlines—and Trump’s remarks about Kelly after that debate were inflammatory.

Still, what is The Donald’s record with women? And how does his record stack against that of his presumptive Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton?

The Donald is nothing if not a businessman. As a high-profile business owner, Trump has hired thousands of people, men and women alike, over the decades. That allows us to get a look at his record as an employer.

Where feminists love to carp about the “glass ceiling”, Trump had no problem hiring women for very high executive positions, putting them in charge of critical projects. If he were bigoted about women, it didn’t show in the way he hired, compensated, and promoted women in his companies.

And while Trump’s sexual dalliances are no secret, it’s not like he has made any effort to cover them up.

Contrast that record with that of Ms. Clinton.

In 1992, she commandeered the efforts to quash the “bimbo eruptions”, women who came forward about their affairs with then-Gov. Bill Clinton, who was running for President;

Throughout the Clinton Presidency, she stood by efforts to smear women who had allegations of sexual harassment against her husband;

As a Senator and a Secretary of State, she consistently supported the abortion holocaust, at least half the victims of which are female and whose promoters specifically market this genocide to the very black community to which she panders for votes.

Neither Clinton nor Trump are perfectly sterling in their dealings with women. At the same time, the President is the Chief Executive, and it is on the Executive to set the standard for how leaders treat people, first as human beings, and also as employees.

Trump, while a novice to the pro-life camp, at least seems to get it, accepting the premise that abortion involves the wanton killing of another human being. Clinton, on the other hand, is in bed with the worst of the abortion rights movement, from Planned Parenthood to NOW to Emily’s List.

And as employers, Trump has clearly been more equitable to women than Hillary. Moreover, he has been downright charitable where he had no incentive to be, as former Miss USA Tara Conner can attest.

Make no mistake: one candidate in this election season is very much an enemy of women.

But that enemy of women is not Donald Trump, but rather Hillary Clinton.

In November 2004, President George W. Bush was re-elected in no small part due to American opposition to redefining marriage. Social conservatives carried the day, sending Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) to a narrow defeat.

Since then, the pitch has been downhill.

In spite of victories at the ballot box, Christians and social conservatives have endured an offensive of major proportions, as

(a) the judiciary in several states have ignored thousands of years of law, fact, and history by overriding the expressed will of the people and redefining marriage via judicial fiat;

(b) federal courts have weakened existing state laws restricting the definition of marriage;

(d) at least one CEO of a major company–Brandon Eich of Mozilla–was forced to resign when his support of historical marriage became public. While Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, and the Robertson family of Duck Dynasty fame were able to push back successfully, smaller businesses and people of smaller financial means have been forced out of jobs and out of business;

(f) polls show that a critical mass of Americans now supports redefining marriage; the Supreme Court of the United States, barring a last-minute change of heart, is poised to redefine marriage in a “landmark decision”;

(g) Revealing what goes on behind the scenes at major companies, an accomplished software engineer of portly size and Christian persuasion was denied a job at GoDaddy.com in no small part due to his Christian faith.

ESPN, in an insult of great irony, tipped its hat to a former gold medaling athlete and proceeded to give Jenner an award for courage, ironically named after Arthur Ashe, a tennis legend who contracted AIDS from a tainted blood transfusion and who chided the culture of promiscuity in his last days.

Jenner may embody the remaking of American manhood and the triumph of feminism. Once the media celebrated him for his stellar decathlon performance in the 1976 Olympics. Nearly 40 years later the media again celebrates Jenner, a man surgically and hormonally feminized, for he is largely its own creation.

That three percent of Americans who self-identify as homosexual are being permitted to redefine marriage, have been a wedge to abolish common law, and are given free rein and massive tax dollars to ramrod humanism down the throats of young Americans–dismissing objectors for thought crimes–is surely reflective of a Christian country under siege or conquered. In fact, the onslaught is of such sufficient magnitude that some progressives are expressing alarm at this attack on free speech and thought.

Kyle Smith calls it a “massive, silent, cultural revolution”, but he’s wrong on one front: while this “cultural revolution” has been massive, it has been anything but silent. The “gay-rights” lobby with their members and allies in Education, the mainstream media, Big Business, and Entertainment, have force-fed sodomy on America for most of the last seventy years.

This is all bad news for Christians. Standing up for your faith, as Wes Modder and Joseph Lawhorn have shown, can be a career-ending move. That Lawhorn had a Ranger tab and Modder was regarded as ‘the best of the best” did not spare them. That Eich had proven himself at Mozilla was a moot point; when his support of Proposition 8 hit the airwaves, he was out of a job.

And when you lose a job, or get sued by a gay couple, or get denied a job in spite of impeccable accomplishments, you’ll learn fast that your real circle of friends has a shorter radius than you ever thought possible.

Your only defense is to prepare for the day when you may be forced to walk the talk. Now is the time to consider developing your exit strategy from your job and into an independent business.

Jeremiah guides us on how to “stand” in Jeremiah 29, there the prophet wrote to the people of God during Daniel’s time. Jeremiah declared captivity would last a long time. Like the time it took to devolve, the captivity was going to last 70 years. So what to do: The prophet directed the people to stand by having children and becoming a mighty people, to plant gardens (control your own sustenance) and to be independent – without causing a lot of trouble because remember Babylon is not your home. Sound familiar?

At the same time, this is not solely about money.

Are you walking in integrity in your personal affairs?

Husbands: do you love your wives as Christ loved the Church?

Wives: do you submit to your husbands as to the Lord? And Couples is your marriage bed “undefiled?”

Singles: do you eschew sexual immorality?

Pastors: do you provide uncompromising preaching and counsel, rightly dividing the word of truth, and walking in freedom from food and sexual appetites that enslave and ensnare?

Everyone: do you conduct yourself in a way that is honest and compassionate?

That may not save you from this present world–as Jesus did not promise that we would have easy lives–but it provides a witness to the only hope for the world while giving a howling reproach to a world that is rife with immorality, dishonesty, rebellion, and a fundamental disregard for that which is good.

Our founders understood that the long-term viability of the Republic is dependent upon the character of the American people.

The United States was founded on Christian principles by imperfect Christians; the common law that underscores our justice system is rooted in Scripture and predates our very Constitution by nearly a millennium.

We have resolved our gravest civil crises in no small part due to our Christian heritage.

Our Cold War victory would not have been possible but for the Christian. When President Reagan spoke of America as a “shining city on a hill”, he was calling attention to our Christian heritage.

John Adams, admonishing our troops, summed it up well:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

We are past the point where merely electing conservatives will materially change our course as a nation. It matters not whether our elected officials are Democrat or Republican. Not only is the corruption so entrenched in our institutions at every level, at least two of the last three Republican Speakers of the House–Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert–were involved in grievous sexual indiscretions.

Moreover, if Gallup is correct, Americans are drifting away from the plumb line of Scripture as our guide which translates to further erosion of our justice system.

While Jesus promised that not even the gates of Hell would prevail against the Church, neither did He promise that His people would be without hardship in captivity, if the greatly lauded Daniel is any guide for us. Indeed, Christians are under severe persecution in the Middle East, Africa, and China. In post-Christian Europe, Canada, and the United States, it is becoming apparent that Christians are increasingly dwindling and unwelcome.

It is evening in America. So to the awake and alert dare to be a Daniel, take your precautions for the future and your time of testing as you deal with America’s “new normal.” And know the only quick remedy to reclaim the Republic is the Light once again shining upon us from another Great Awakening.

The United States of America, founded by Christians on a legal system (common law) rooted in the Old and New Testaments and institutions (military in particular) based on same, has sustained a seismic shift of foundation beginning in the middle of the 20th Century. Today the recent upheaval in Indiana and Arkansas, whose governments passed state versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), has given Christians a glimpse of the hostility that awaits them in a nation now considered post-Christian.

The gay rights movement, in concert with their allies in state governments (Washington, Connecticut), academia (NCAA), and corporate America (Angie’s List, NASCAR, Google, Starbucks, Apple), attacked Indiana and Arkansas with overwhelming fury. While it did not help that Gov. Mike Pence (R-IN) fumbled in his interview with George Stephanopoulos, his performance would not have mattered: the backlash was so severe that the legislatures of Indiana and Arkansas backtracked and passed weakened versions of what was already a benign RFRA law.

I’m not going to focus on the particulars of the RFRA laws; at this point, that is a secondary issue. Even then, small businesses are hardly out of the woods on this. More on that later.

If you are a Christian, you need to pay serious attention to what just happened in Indiana and Arkansas.

Corporate America is not on your side.

Many Americans suffer from the illusion that Big Business leans conservative. In fact, Big Business is completely on board with Progressive government agendas.

Homosexuals, as a demographic group, have very high per capita income, and represent many high achievers in the corporate world. Ditto for feminists, who have been climbing the corporate ladder for decades. Moreover, corporations often embrace government “diversity” standards in return for lucrative government contracts (some of which are “no-bid”).

In the government world, “diversity” is about mass re-education—promoting a leftist social agenda—and not about equitable race relations.

Big Business also has an economic incentive to support the sodomy agenda: it crushes small businesses. Yes, you read that correctly: the gay agenda crushes small businesses.

Here’s how…

For one thing, any small business that refuses to bow to the sodomy lobby is going to face litigation in a hostile court system. Hiring a legal team and fighting court battles is not value-added activity, and many small businesses will lack the resources to fight those battles. And while RFRA provides some protection—the verbiage is exactly the standard that allowed Hobby Lobby to prevail with SCOTUS—there are still many particulars that the gay lobby is anxious to test in court. Small businesses are going to be ground zero in that fight.

If you own a bakery and refuse to cater a gay “wedding”, you are still at risk of being sued. While RFRA appears to be on your side, that is no guarantee that the federal court system won’t decide that the “compelling government interest” test requires you to cater the wedding. And fighting that battle requires money, which leads me to…

Secondly, corporations have the economies of scale to handle the non-value-added activity of managing Human Resources (HR) policy, often at the direction of in-house legal counsel. If you’re a mom-and-pop shop that ekes out a marginal profit, you cannot afford that, and the big corporations know it. If the sodomites drive you out of business, then that’s good for the big businesses.

That dynamic is, in point of fact, the essence of the old-school Fascism of Mussolini’s Italy and the National Socialism that Germans embraced in the wake of their economic collapse.

If you work in corporate America, your job is not safe.

The corporate backlash against Indiana is very instructive; when have corporations ever made such waves against benign laws? Angie’s List canceled a planned expansion in Indiana; Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Computers, penned an op-ed denouncing RFRA laws; Google, Microsoft, and even NASCAR released statements affirming the “LGBT” community and opposing the Indiana RFRA law.

If you work for a corporation, then you’d better trod very carefully. This is a perfect opportunity to be wise as a serpent. If you haven’t studied Proverbs in a while, then this is a good time to get re-acquainted with it. As you do, I will admonish you as a friend once admonished me when I was in a crisis: Keep your eyes and ears open, and your mouth shut. Pick your battles wisely, and prepare for the worst.

If you’ve ever given money to a cause that supports historical marriage, then you could be a target. Brandon Eich, whose record at Mozilla was stellar, was forced to resign his post as CEO. After a gay activist employee outed Eich for giving money in support of California’s Proposition 8, his board wouldn’t support him: he was done.

Even if you’re not an officer of a company, you’re still fair game. When layoffs become necessary, the HR department may put you at the top of the pecking order. Even if you are in a union-protected job, the union might cut a deal and throw you under the bus. You may find yourself passed over for promotions and pay raises.

If you belong to a church or religious group that defines homosexuality as sin, then you could be a target. All it will take is one activist who baits you into expressing your views, after which you could be at risk of termination for “promoting a hostile work environment.” It will not matter if your prior job evaluations are sterling. Just ask Lt. Cmdr Wes Modder, a Navy Chaplain whose latest evaluation rated him “the best of the best”, who now risks being drummed out of the service—short of his 20 year retirement—all because he stuck to the Biblical understanding of sexuality. His great performance and respect among his peers does him nothing; he’s still being targeted because he won’t click his heels and bow to the sodomy lobby.

While the anti-Christian tide in America pales in comparison to the slaughter of Christians at the hands of ISIS, Boko Haram, and the Muslim Brotherhood, make no mistake: Christians in America are facing marginalization on the home front, and that situation is getting more—not less—hostile.

Just as ISIS is destroying Christian artifacts and relics and churches in the Middle East, the secular left in America is destroying every vestige of Christianity that made America exceptional.

This is a time for sobriety among the Christians of America. The same country that won the Cold War—because of the Christian—is now embracing the very secularist agenda that has led to barbarism on scales that would have made Ghengis Khan blush, all at a time when the Islamic world is advancing against the West.

It is on the Christian to provide the answer to the Islamist and the Secularist.

While the penalty for doing so will be costly, the penalty for silence will be magnitudes worse.

In the height of the Cold War and in the wake of Vietnam, the military went to great lengths to recruit Christians. Our leaders promoted the Cold War in terms of our Christianity in contrast with the cold, murderous Atheism of the Soviet Union. It was not uncommon for recruiting magazines to portray outstanding Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines who were outspoken evangelical Christians. I know, because I received those publications during my high school days.

The Christian answered the call: they would go to West Point, Annapolis, and Colorado Springs; they would enlist and become Rangers and Green Berets and Pararescuemen; they would become Air Force pilots, Naval Aviators, Marines, missile launch officers, combat infantryman, aircraft mechanics, medics, and sonar technicians.

Ten years after the fall of Saigon in 1975–when military morale was low–the American military had literally remade itself into the fighting force that won the Cold War. The Christian played an integral role in that turnaround.

Prior to the rescue of the Cabanatuan POW camp–where the 6th Ranger Battalion rescued 508 Allied POWs who survived the Bataan Death March and were marked for extermination–Col. Henry Mucci warned those who wanted to fight: “There will be no atheists on this trip.” He forbade any Ranger from participating the mission unless they had met with a chaplain and prayed about it. After the mission, Col. Mucci was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross.

Fast forward 70 years…

On November 20, 2014, at a suicide prevention class for the 5th Ranger Training Battalion, Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn–a rare chaplain who also wore the Ranger Tab and who himself had suffered depression–provided Biblical resources for dealing with depression. During the Cold War, this would have been quite welcome, and Lawhorn would be a front-page champion for the Army: the Ranger who promotes the highest virtues as a Chaplain.

Unfortunately, someone in the class barked at the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, and, as a result, Lawhorn received a “Letter of Concern” from Col. David Fivecoat on Thanksgiving Day.

So let’s get this straight: we’ve gone from a culture where a Ranger Colonel excludes atheists from a major rescue mission–demanding that they meet with a chaplain and pray about it first–and gets a Distinguished Service Cross, to a culture where a Ranger Chaplain provides Biblical resources for suicide and, for doing so, gets a career-threatening “letter of concern” from a Ranger Colonel?

Vietnam veteran Col. Ronald D. Ray (USMC, Ret) has been following this decline over the last three decades. From his defense of Michael New, who rightly refused to wear United Nations insignia, to his defense of Virginia Military Institute, which came under attack for their pre-meal prayer, Col. Ray is not surprised by the recent developments.

“None of our founding fathers would have supported this. Our military was founded to uphold our highest virtues. What else is a Chaplain supposed to do? This is a suicide prevention class and a chaplain provides Biblical references. He was doing his job.”

Our military is at an impasse. An institution that once reinforced the best of American virtues is turning chaplains into a secular social workers; an institution that, for 200 years, enthusiastically welcomed the Christian is now pushing that very Christian out of the service.

This is out of character for a military that has a time-honored track record of supporting the Christian consensus that made America exceptional. At First Principles Press, we have amassed a collection of prayers and exhortations by our Founding Fathers, military leaders, and Presidents: Endowed By Their Creator.

Here is an example of a prayer from that collection, that was once a part of the West Point Prayer Book:

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage;
We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a
people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land
with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save
us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance,
and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one
united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds
and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy
Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be
justice and peace at home, and that, through the obedience to thy law,
we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In
the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the
day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail, all which we ask
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Even the hardest of hardcore Generals, Lt. Gen. George Patton, provided similar leadership in prayer:

God of our Fathers, who by land and sea has ever led us on to
victory, please continue Your inspiring guidance in this the greatest
of our conflicts.

Strengthen my soul so that the weakening instinct of self-
preservation, which besets all of us in battle, shall not blind me to
my duty to my own manhood, to the glory of my calling, and to my
responsibility to my fellow soldiers.

Grant to our armed forces the disciplined valor and mutual
confidence which insures success in war.
Let me not mourn for men who have died fighting, but rather
let me be glad that such heroes have lived.

If it be my lot to die, let me do so with courage and honor in a
manner which will bring the greatest harm to the enemy, and please,
O Lord, protect and guide those I shall leave behind.

Give us the victory, O Lord. Amen.

At the end of World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur–a Five Star General–called on Americans to send Christian missionaries to Japan.

In other words, at this time, a Ranger chaplain is under assault for providing counsel that is totally in line with the heritage of The United States Military Academy, and the spirit in which great generals–from Washington to Patton and MacArthur–led our Armed Forces to their greatest victories in the worst of conflicts.

Reclaiming that heritage from a small, but noisy and well-funded cadre of scoffers, will be key to American survival.

Wisdom to Follow

It is therefore of immense importance to men to have fixed ideas about God, their souls, and their duties toward their Creator and their fellows, for doubt about these first principles would leave all their actions to chance and condemn them, more or less, to anarchy and impotence.

Alexis de ToCqueville

The Republic of the United States of America and Its Political Institutions, 1838